Taylors - same great crisps, different packet.
Background
When a successful, well-known and trusted brand takes the bold move to both rename the business and redesign its packaging, there’s clearly risk involved.
Taylors Snacks, formerly known as Mackie’s of Taypack, or Mackie’s Crisps to most people, have done exactly that.
We think it looks great on the shelf, but ultimately it’ll be the shoppers that decide. However, in terms of knowing their category and making insight-driven decisions, this was innovation best practice by the Taylors Snack team, supported by TRKR.
Before any creative work took place….
The right blend of market data, from both Kantar and Nielsen, to understand their underlying performance and that of competitors
In-depth category insight from TRKR, to truly understand shoppers in the category, including:
Why they choose one brand over another (or own label for that matter);
What’s important to them;
How different brands are perceived and what their shopper profile looks like;
Understanding who the Mackie’s Crisps shopper is and what else they buy;
Understanding why some people don’t buy Mackie’s Crisps
Only then, and armed with this knowledge, did the team embark on the creative rebrand.
Even then, twice the team dipped back into the research to test and fine-tune their designs prior to launch. The last of these was a 10-day Category Snapshot, with feedback on different designs, pack layout and to compare vs their main competitors.
Outcome
This approach to innovation not only gave the team confidence that they were making good decisions along the way, but it also created a compelling narrative for Retail Buyer discussions.
As Managing Director James Taylor summarises:
“Working closely with the team at TRKR gave us the behavioural insight and confidence we needed to make sure we were giving the Taylors brand the best possible start in life.”
The new range of Taylor’s Crisps launched in April 2023 in Sainsbury’s stores with a further rollout across all stores in May.
So, what’s next?
Will they retain their market position?
Will they attract new customers and retain existing ones, get a lasting “bounce” from the new look?
Or will people fail to find the Mackie’s Crisps brand they know and trust?
Nothing’s guaranteed, of course, a lot will depend on the execution and probably a bit more fine-tuning over the next year or so. But they couldn’t have done much more to increase their chances of success.